To segregate waste in Chandigarh, two-bin system to begin from today

Green dustbins will be meant for disposing wet waste, dry waste will be thrown inthe blue dustbins.On the occasion of World Environment Day on Monday, the move will begin at the same time with UT Administrator V P Singh Badnore distributing it to five residents each at 11 am at Tagore Theatre. Simultaneously, the mayor and area councillors will also distribute the bins to residents of their ward at the respective community centres.To initiate segregation of waste at the household level, the two-bin system in Chandigarh will begin from Monday. In the first phase, as many as one lakh coloured dustbins will be distributed to residents of each of the 26 wards.There will be two types of dustbins — green and blue. Green dustbins will be meant for disposing of wet waste while dry waste will be thrown in the blue dustbins. About 1.5 lakh more dustbins will be purchased by June 25. All the 2.5 lakh dustbins of 12 litre capacity will cost the civic body about Rs 2.36 crore.Other than this, 3,000 big dustbins of 40 litre capacity, which will be given to garbage collectors, will also be distributed. These have cost Rs 18 lakh.On the occasion of World Environment Day on Monday, the move will begin at the same time with UT Administrator V P Singh Badnore distributing it to five residents each at 11 am at Tagore Theatre. Simultaneously, the mayor and area councillors will also distribute the bins to residents of their ward at the respective community centres.Because Chandigarh did not have segregation at source, this was one of the parameters where the city lost in the Swachh Survekshan survey. Chandigarh’s ranking was 11 this time while it was second last year.Mayor Asha Jaswal said that they were educating particularly women on the segregation at the source level.“Because women handle the household work, so we are educating them about the dustbins. I agree it will take some time, but I am sure Chandigarh would be the first city to adopt this segregation quickly,” Mayor Jaswal said.She added, “In the evening, all the councillors will be distributing the dustbins at community centre while informing about the residents about the importance of the segregation.”Although the MC will be involving garbage collectors in this move, they are not sure if the latter will cooperate fully. The garbage collectors have been resisting the move as they do not want to function under the Municipal Corporation.MC has been under constant fire for unclean environment. The councillors had told the mayor that the Swachh Bharat Mission was a flop show as garbage was not being lifted.The proposal for segregation of garbage at source level has been there for the last many years. Even during the term of the then Municipal Commissioner Bhawna Garg, who had visited Coimbatore with the then Joint Commissioner Rajiv Gupta, she had pressed for the segregation at source level. However, it was never implemented.